Focus on...

The Cape and Islands’ chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE, honored 20 small businesses in its annual awards breakfast last Thursday. Among the honorees were Puritan Clothing, Chatham Cookware, Brax Landing and Talking Threads Custom Embroidery.
SCORE, whose volunteers provide free mentoring for entrepreneurs, small business owners and non-profits, presented their “Better Mousetrap” awa...

Like pizza? Have questions you’d like to ask the Chatham police and police chief?
Your chance to enjoy pizza while getting your questions answered will come during an informal luncheon called “Pizza with the Police” on May 11 at the Chatham Council on Aging (COA).
“This is one of our community interactions that we do,” says Chatham Police Chief Mark R. Pawlina. And “what gets people together more than anyth...

When Dr. Mitch Tishler first opened his chiropractic office in Munson Meeting in October 1987, someone gave him a small ficus tree. That tree still stands in his light-filled examination room, where its branches tickle the ceiling.
“All I do is water it once a week,” Tishler says of the tree. “I think it lives on love.”
Like the ficus tree, Chatham Chiropractic Wellness Center has grown in place, and love i...

If you get your drinking water from a private well, a team of public health researchers would like you to volunteer for their study of harmful chemicals in the aquifer.
Specifically, researchers are looking for wells that may be contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a group of chemicals linked with chronic health problems.
Often associated with airports and fire training academies ...

The Lower Cape economy relies heavily on guest workers from Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and other parts of the world, but with strict limits on the H-2B visa program – and a shortage of housing – local employers always seem to be scrambling for more staff.
“I know the Cape, as a whole, is concerned,” Harwich Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Cyndi Williams said. Though she hasn’t heard specific problems...

CHATHAM – The Chatham Drama Guild (CDG) is ready to celebrate its facelift in public.
During a festive gala on April 22 everyone can admire the CDG’s new stage, buffed floors, painted walls and new bathroom fixtures as well as see a sneak preview of “The Miracle Worker.”
“At 85 years it deserves a makeover,” says CDG Vice President Pamela Banas of Orleans who spearheaded the two-month project. “I am so enth...

Mastering techniques of theater and art as a way of aging artfully is the aim of two new free courses at the Chatham Council On Aging (COA) this spring.
“The World’s a Stage,” a drama workshop series and “Artful Aging” art classes will both begin later this month.
“Seniors have to use their creativity and imagination more because of limitations life and fate impose on us,” says Elsa Bastone of Chatham, who ...

NORTH HARWICH — When it comes to fighting high blood pressure or diabetes, most people know the importance of a healthy diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables. But healthy eating isn't always easy, since fresh produce can be expensive and junk food seems to be everywhere around us.
A collaboration between the Family Pantry of Cape Cod and the Barnstable County Public Health Nurses is finding creative solut...

Captain Scott MacAllister has just spent weeks indoors putting an enormous amount of time, energy and money into his boat, F/V Carol Marie, but he did it happily remembering late last fall …
He was in the throes of groundfish season and had been working 16-hour days, barely sleeping during the hours he had before waking up in the middle of the night to set off from the Chatham Fish Pier once again.
So he ...

EAST HARWICH — When it comes to purchasing their dream vacation home on Cape Cod, buyers are fickle – and they’re not interested in fixer-uppers.
That’s the message from real estate agent Tony Guthrie, who is holding an informational seminar for potential sellers. Guthrie works with real estate agent Sharon Mabile for Robert Paul Properties, and said the seminar aims to share some inside information with sel...

Father Joseph Towle of Harwich gazes through the front window of the West Chatham Dunkin’ Donuts and across Route 28 to a cluster of four Habitat for Humanity homes where he worked until last fall, when the houses were completed.
“I think it’s great because we’re hammering nails and cutting board but there’s a greater vision,” he says. “Building a more just society would be the secular way of looking at it. So...

CHATHAM — At about 7:20 a.m. on a gray Thursday morning it’s 42 degrees and sprinkling when members of the Chatham Walkers convene in the breezy parking lot overlooking Oyster Pond.
Bill Horrocks, a walker since 1994, is the first to arrive for the thrice-weekly three-mile walk. Over the next five minutes others drift in, including June Herold, one of this month’s walk leaders.
“It’s fairly mild,” she say...